Developer won't confirm that new Lakeside development will include upscale grocer

Winter Park has approved a retail development that the city said will include a new home for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, as well as a grocery site that raised commissioners' hopes about luring a Trader Joe's.

The site plan approved Monday night for the Lakeside development on the shores of Lake Killarney led Commissioner Carolyn Cooper to say that "everyone's excited about Trader Joe's."

But developer Chuck Whittall said he could "neither confirm nor deny" that the upscale grocery chain eventually might open a location at the center, planned for U.S. Highway 17-92 at Morse Boulevard.

"I'm really not at liberty to discuss that," Whittall said later in an interview. "We've heard all the rumors in town."

Trader Joe's spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki would not comment on plans for a Winter Park location. Last fall, however, the chain said it had no plans to build stores in the Orlando area for at least two years.

The California-based chain, which has stores in Gainesville, Naples and Sarasota, would seem a natural fit for Winter Park. It's popular among affluent shoppers and offers organic and kosher foods.

According to Whittall and city spokesperson Clarissa Howard, Ruth's Chris plans to leave its current location in Winter Park Village and move to the new Lakeside development. A representative of Ruth's Chris did not return a call seeking comment.

Whittall said he expects to break ground on the project in June or July. The four-acre site — bordered by the Lake Killarney condos to the north and Hillstone restaurant to the south — is now home to a defunct motel and an Adventist Health System building.

"Our goal is to have the best-looking development Winter Park has ever seen," Whittall said.

Other planned occupants for the 35,500-square-foot complex include a bank, jeweler, day spa and fitness center, Whittall said. A paddleboard business would operate from a dock on the lakeshore.

If all goes as planned, the complex would open in mid-2014.

Commissioners expressed reservations about parking at the site but ultimately voted 4-0 in favor. Mayor Kenneth Bradley recused himself because his employer, Adventist Health System, owns the site. Bradley is CEO of Winter Park Memorial Hospital.

Whittall's Unicorp National Developments Inc. has a contract to purchase the site. The company is building the I-Drive Live complex and also developed Uptown Altamonte and the Dellagio Town Center on Orlando's Restaurant Row in the Dr. Phillips area.